Museums: Broken Harness

Whenever museum trustees and the director fall out, the art world braces
for a struggle of mythological proportions. Almost inevitably, it is the embattled
director who is seen as Jason; the trustees are billed as the golden fleecers. Too
often such a storybook approach ignores not only the subtleties
involved in any corporate relationship but also the stresses and
strains produced in seeing a huge cultural enterprise through its birth
pangs.

Such is the sad case in Los Angeles, where trustees of the new Los
Angeles County Art Museum, open just eight months, voted unanimously to
dismiss their director,...